


Why is it so dark?

by we_are_all_mad_here



Category: Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins
Genre: Capitol, Coma, F/M, Feels, Healthy Relationships, Hospital, Love, Memories, Possibly Triggering, train crash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-09
Updated: 2014-06-09
Packaged: 2018-02-04 00:39:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,494
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1760923
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/we_are_all_mad_here/pseuds/we_are_all_mad_here
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A few years after the events in Mockingjay occurred, Katniss was called into the Capitol to make a speech about the damage that the Hunger Games had done to her. Unfortunately, the train crashed and Katniss was left in a coma - Not that she knew it. Peeta comes for a visit and they reminisce about their past relationship.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Why is it so dark?

Darkness. 

Katniss awakes as if from a deep sleep, not fully remembering ever falling asleep. She looks around but sees nothing, ‘maybe there was a power cut’ she thought ‘they are always happening nowadays.’ She glanced around into the darkness.  
‘Peeta? Children? Peeta where are you?!’ She calls out as loud as she can but there was no answer. From somewhere in the distance a door opens and Katniss immediately stands to attention; thoughts returning to her about being alone in the woods in the first hunger games - scared, confused and ready.  
‘Katniss? I-it’s me, Peeta.’ Her stance relaxes and she looks around in the darkness, trying to find the source of his voice.  
‘Peeta! Oh thank god! Where are you? I can’t see anything!’ Her voice almost sounds pitifully small as she searches for him, her legs stumbling as she tries to move around.  
‘I’m here, its okay. The nurses have left now; it’s just you and me.’  
‘Nurses? What? Peeta what’s going on?’ Katniss tried to sound strong as Haymitch had taught her but it was difficult – She was so confused and she felt almost light as she listened to her husband’s voice.  
‘I feel like I need to explain, okay? Explain what happened? I know the nurses probably have but I don’t feel it’s real yet...’ Peeta trails off and Katniss feels a light stroking over her hand. She hissed and batted it away but the feeling persisted, it was drawing circles into the back of her hand over and over and over again; it was almost soothing. ‘Katniss there...There was as a train c-crash...You were on your way to the Capitol, some sort of work convention – I know how much you hated those but I persuaded you to go. Sorry about that...’ Peeta chuckled lightly but it was dry and full of self-loathing. ‘Anyway y-you were on your way when something happened to the train, a broken track or something and the t-train c-crashed it-‘ Peeta broke off as a sob wracked his body and Katniss felt a weight against her stomach despite her standing up. ‘H-Haymitch he...He was pretty well b-bashed. Broken skull...T-three shattered r-ribs...Still managed to survive...He always was tough. You...You weren’t so lucky. Your head went t-through the window...Katniss you’re...The nurses said you could hear so I want you to know.’ Katniss mentally begged Peeta to tell her, what was wrong, what she was. ‘Y-you’re in a coma.’

Katniss’ stomach dropped and she looked around in the darkness finally realising what it was – She was trapped inside her own mind. The stroking on her hand was Peeta, soothing circles into her skin and the weight on her stomach was his head as he lent against her for comfort.   
‘Peeta? Please! I’m in here!’ She called out as loud as she could but no one replied.  
‘Katniss you need to promise me something.’ Peeta’s voice was strong as Katniss had ever heard it and it brought her back to attention, leaving her silent pleas hanging in the air. ‘I need you to promise that you won’t leave me and the children. You can’t. You wouldn’t. You said real remember? Remember we used to play that? I said ‘you love me, real or not real?’ and you said ‘real’...You would be lying if you left now...Please...I just need you to wake up...Come back to me...please.’   
Katniss could almost hear the regret in his voice as he blackmailed her into staying alive and she chuckled sadly to – apparently – only herself; he must be really desperate but the sadness in Peeta’s voice made her want to cry – He had never begged like that before. ‘I don’t want to go Peeta. Don’t let me go.’ She willed her hands to move, to hold on to him as she was struck with a sudden wave of emotion, of longing for Peeta, for his calloused hands and his rough skin. The way he would bake fresh bread every morning and always bring her the end piece without fail, knowing it was her favourite.  
‘Katniss I need you to remember something for me. Can you do that?’ He hesitated for a moment as if awaiting her answer and after a few seconds wait, he nodded his head against her stomach. ‘That’s okay. Take all of the time you need. I need you to remember that night in the first Hunger Games.’ He must have realised Katniss’s trepidation and reluctance to remember one of the two events she had tried to forget most. ‘Bare with me, okay? I’ll try to be quick...I was so scared; I had hurt my leg remember? I thought I was going to die but you made it better, you were there to clean me and you healed my leg remember? With that stuff that Haymitch gave us. Then you kissed me and suddenly everything felt okay again, we weren’t in the arena anymore; we were back in 12 – In the woods surrounding it. I know they are your favourite places in the world.’ Katniss reached out as if to stroke his head and whimpered lightly when she found nothing there; the sound was weak and needy and Katniss didn’t like it one bit but at this point she didn’t care – She just wanted to hear more of Peeta’s voice and the way the words flew out of his mouth like poetry out of a poet’s.  
‘But...’ Peeta’s voice interrupted the reverie and she pulled all of her attention back to him. ‘In the second one...When the Capitol...’ He trailed off and Katniss felt him cringe against her; his shoulder’s shuddering lightly against her side. ‘I couldn’t remember anything, I didn’t want to remember anything...I found them though. The tapes, in the library – The archives. Apparently they are regarded as history now...I watched them. Only our two, mind...I wanted to know Katniss. I wanted to know what happened and I saw it...I saw the moments in the cave...I remembered...It hurt but I did it...For you.’   
He trailed off and Katniss wiped away some tears that were falling down her face. He had given up his new memory of almost nothing that was true, for their relationship. For him wanting to know what things were like between them before his mind was poisoned with the Capitol’s words. Luckily their fights and disagreements never happened in the public’s eye.  
‘A-and after...When I came back...I just thought...I didn’t know...Katniss I’m so s-sorry! T-the Capitol, I-...’ The pressure on Katniss’s stomach increased and wet patches grew as Peeta’s tears soaked her shirt, or dress, or whatever she was wearing. No light meant Katniss couldn’t see very well. 'A-and you had just lost y-your home and...And everything you know...I didn't help that...I-I'm sorry...'

After a few moments of allowing emotion to take over, a door opened somewhere in the distance and Katniss looked towards the sound, momentarily forgetting that she couldn’t see anything anyway. The weight on her stomach disappeared and the soothing circles on the back of her hand stopped.   
‘Oh, sorry Sir. I’m afraid I have to check Mrs Mellark’s charts, is that okay?’ Katniss obviously couldn’t see the nurse but considering this was – assumedly – the Capitol, she was imagining brightly coloured hair and an abundance of different make up styles and accessories .   
Peeta sniffed twice then stood up, his chair screeching against the plastic or metal floor – Katniss couldn’t tell. ‘Sure, I’ll just be outside.’ A light kiss was pressed to Katniss’s forehead and while she didn’t know why he had to leave, she still cherished the touch. He exited the room swiftly and the nurse fiddled around with her wires and checked the machines.  
‘Well, your vitals are looking pretty good, Miss. All you need to do is wake on up and you can see your husband again, yeah?’  
‘Well I would wake up if I could, wouldn’t I?’ Katniss mentally scolded the woman, granted it wasn’t her fault but she wanted her Peeta back. The woman tottered on about her business and tried to make a polite one-sided conversation with Katniss but her mind was elsewhere. Where were her children? Her little girl was four and her baby boy was almost three, they could be staying with...Their only other guardian was also incapacitated. Haymitch. Was he okay? Peeta said he was banged up but how badly?  
‘Okay love, I’m all done here. I’ll get your husband back in for you. Sorry for the interruption.’ Katniss could hear the lady’s embellishments jingle as she walked away and the soft whoosh as the door opened and closed, slight murmuring from outside then another soft whoosh as the door repeated its movements. A chair scratched against the floor and the soothing circles were returned to the back of her hand. 

Her Peeta was back.

**Author's Note:**

> I kinda want to add more detail to the end - make it better in some way but I'm not sure how so if anyone has any suggestions then that'll be great. But otherwise, I hope you enjoyed it :)


End file.
